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One of the main reasons that people purchase a hybrid car is because they want the great fuel economy of an electrical motor matched with the backup and power of a petrol engine.\u00a0 More and more car manufacturers are embracing hybrid technology (including plug-in hybrids) and when they promote their vehicles, one of the features that they love to highlight is the great fuel economy figures. \u00a0Who doesn\u2019t want to save a few bucks on fuel, after all?<\/p>\n
Then comes driving in the real world.\u00a0 We all know by now that the fuel economy figures that they wave around with any car, whether it\u2019s a hybrid, a petrol or a diesel, are all derived from test lab conditions where they don\u2019t even pop the car in question out on a real live test track \u2013 no, indeedy, folks, they do it all in the lab where annoying things like crosswinds, slopes and the weight of the driver won\u2019t make those L\/100 km figures creep up.\u00a0 Nevertheless, you still want to get the most out of your new hybrid vehicle and keep those figures as frugal as possible.<\/p>\n
The car will do its best to keep those economy figures at their best but the biggest factor influencing the fuel economy figures of a hybrid is the way that you drive.\u00a0 Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n
Accelerate gently rather than roaring off and brake gently.\u00a0 This keeps your engine purring or ticking over in the green zone where you can use mostly the electric motor.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, gentle braking and slowing down means that you can make the most of the regenerated braking energy, keeping the battery nicely topped up.\u00a0 So ease up on the feet and tread lightly if you want to reduce your footprint (doesn\u2019t that clich\u00e9d metaphor work nicely here!).<\/p>\n
In their quest for great fuel economy, the design team of any hybrid vehicle have carefully considered drag and air resistance. As anyone who\u2019s ever ridden a bike for a reasonable trip (i.e. over 1 km) will know, air really pushes hard on anything that moves and the more drag you\u2019ve got, the harder the engine has to work and the more energy it consumes. This means that if you don\u2019t need that roof rack or if you don\u2019t need the windows down, don\u2019t do it. Keep the outer skin of the car smooth so it slides through the air almost as efficiently as a fish through water or a falcon through the air\u2026<\/p>\n
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Get rid of the junk in the trunk.\u00a0 Here, I\u2019m not talking about trimming down your waistline or your buttocks (although any weight reduction will make your car more fuel efficient) but all the clobber that tends to get stuffed in the baggage compartments.\u00a0 Drop off that bag of old clothes to the charity shop or whatever you need to do to ensure that you\u2019ve only got the essentials in there (you are allowed to keep a raincoat in there just in case).<\/p>\n
These first three tips may sound familiar, as these fuel economy tips (plus other basics like making sure the tyre pressure is right) apply to any vehicle, not just a hybrid.\u00a0 However, there are some other techniques that are for hybrids only.<\/p>\n
Most modern hybrids, especially the ones put out by Toyota, have a handy little dashboard display so you know when the electric motor is at work and when you\u2019re using fuel.\u00a0 Keep half an eye on this \u2013 as long as the traffic is light and you can do this safely \u2013 and ease off as needed.\u00a0 You may need to spend a bit of time if you\u2019re new to driving hybrid vehicles getting familiar with your display at first.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re in that familiar situation of crawling through lots of stop-start traffic, don\u2019t be tempted to put the gear into neutral while you\u2019re at a standstill. Your battery will start discharging, which means it may not have the oomph when you need it.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need to put it into neutral anyway, so keep your hands off that gear lever!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to just pop on all the conveniences like air-con, lights and wipers just in case.\u00a0 However, if it\u2019s only a little bit warm and you\u2019re not going too fast, how about opening the window a little to let the breeze in?\u00a0 (Yes, opening the window increases drag but it only does this noticeably when you\u2019re at higher speeds; around town, it\u2019s probably more fuel-efficient that the air-con). If there\u2019s fog or dew on the outside of your windows, wipe it off with that junk mail in your letterbox or a tissue before you get in the car rather than popping the wipers on.\u00a0 If it\u2019s only spitting lightly and the moisture falling on your windscreen is running or evaporating off quickly enough for it not to affect your vision, don\u2019t bother with the wipers.\u00a0 If you can see 100 m ahead of you perfectly well and you\u2019re not in a funeral procession, you don\u2019t really need the lights.\u00a0 All these little things drain electricity from the battery, so the less you use them, the more the battery will be able to do to get you around town.\u00a0 Use these conveniences only when necessary.<\/p>\n
Having your climate control on recirculate is more energy efficient than having it on free-flow, because the system doesn\u2019t have to work as hard to get it up or down to the right temperature, which reduces drain on the battery.<\/p>\n
Even hybrid engines hate getting started on cold winter mornings. Winter also increases the need for fog lights, headlights, heaters and windscreen wipers.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little known fact that winter driving is less efficient than summer driving.\u00a0 There\u2019s not much you can do about this one apart from being aware of it.\u00a0 Maybe the crafty people in your life can whip up an afghan or car rug for you so you don\u2019t have to crank up the heater? http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/zaymi-nalichnymi-blog-single.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the main reasons that people purchase a hybrid car is because they want the great fuel economy of an electrical motor matched with the backup and power of a petrol engine.\u00a0 More and more car manufacturers are embracing hybrid technology (including plug-in hybrids) and when they promote their vehicles, one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-driving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7479"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11409,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479\/revisions\/11409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}